Souri

Thank you

dear Divaneh, thanks for explaining your views about the matter. I appreciated to hear your views.

As the say in French : Les avis sont partages. Means that there are different views on this subjects.

Still, I feel like I am more agreed with MPD than the others views.
Thanks everyone for your inputs.

Yes, the audio clip is very entertaining

The kind of entertainment that is worthy of online viewers, where the attention span of the average viewer is less than five minutes.  Heck, I was also duly entertained myself, but is this really worthy of MA?

MA is well known for her criticism of the Iranian authorities.  While she was in Iran, her harsh criticism of the conservatives were a constant headache for the people in power.  During the time she was Majles correspondent for Hambastegi Daily and ILNA for four years, she was so daring that she ended up being banned from Majles in 2005.  In 2008, while she was writing for Etemad Melli Daily, she was so critical of the conservatives that the former head of Majles, Mehdi Karroubi, ended up apologizing in behalf of the publication.  With this kind of background, does she not know the difference between a News Editor and a reporter, or a phone operator?  The organization she works for, which I still do not know on whose behalf she made the phone call; do they not know who the manager of the Art and Culture Section of the False News Agency is?  Couldn't she ask to speak with an editor, a director, or a manager; instead of asking to speak with "someone" in that section?

With this kind of journalism, MA is going to lose her hard earned credibility, and become an entertainer, or maybe a mere political activist, instead of a badly needed good journalist.

I found it very funny

I am not a big fan of Alinejad but loved this action. I laughed hard listening to the second reporter insisting that it was not her business and that the news was obtained from a reliable source. It was sort of "it's our own news organ and we say what we'd like to say". I think more of us really need to do what she has done. Yes, we knew all these, but she has just put them in the corner and proved them that unlike what they think, the world is not dumb, it is them who is dumb.

These people's ranks are irrelevant here. If they were high ranking people then it must be a crap organisation to have these people on top. If they were low ranking, then it must be a crap organisation with no discipline where low ranking people give themselves the permission to talk on behalf of the organisation.

Thanks for sharing Souri.

dear Dr Ala

Thanks for sharing your story with us. I didn't understand the relation with the subject? What do you mean exactly? You mean that the new manager wanted to set her own rules, and that you should not accept what she said? Or the contrary?

It is important to question the news media.

That article is removed.

In early January, I took a box full of toys to a place where children from 1-6 years are cared for because of their parents being in jail, or drug addicts, or similar issues.  This place had a new manager.  She did not accept any of the toys because they did not have “new” tags on them.  I told her these types of toys were accepted before, this was her reply:  I said so, I am the new manager.

I picked up the toys and went to another location where older children (6-12 years) were kept.  They accepted the toys. 

When some people say… “Arabab roojoh”, I say nah, nokar roojoh. 

MPD jon, I always need you :)

You explain it so fast and easy that I could never do it in 50 pages with my very eloquent English ....LOL

That was my point, too. We are listening to a phone conversation, where we only know one side (MA) but we don't know the other side. Is the person on the phone, the right person to be questioned about the false statement posted there? We just know that those people on the phone were the ignorant (at least) employees, but were they the right  persons and the true responsibles for answering Ms MA question?

I think MA could do better than this.

The cast in order of appearance:

.

.

Masih Alinejad (MA); does not introduce herself and does not give affiliation.

Phone Operator (PO); she does not know anything, she even says, ‘I don’t know', but at least she asks the caller to identify herself, and tries to direct MA to the appropriate branch.

Reporter #1 (R#1); does not know anything about the story but tries to direct MA to someone that might know something about the story.

Reporter #2 (R#2); does not know anything about the story, begins to read the story while MA is on the phone asking questions.  R#2 answers inappropriately.

PO, R#1, and R#2 know just about nothing about this story.  They are low ranking staff, working for a stupid news agency.  On the other hand MA is a highly intelligent, trained, and seasoned journalist.  This recorded phone conversation with three low ranking staff of False News Agency is nothing but a cheap shot to discredit a disgraceful news organization.  This kind of journalism is beneath MA.  She could do better than this.

Thanks dear Ari and Bavafa

So you two vote for Ms Alinejad :)

You may have a point, here. I also think it served her purpose,but I am still questioning Alinejad's true motivation.

It is not the same as Katie and Sarah Palin, to me. That one was a face to face interview (alive and we could see the people on the video) while this one, is only a voice to voice interaction. We don't know/see the people on the other side of the line.

The Fars news being unprofessional and bias, is no new to anybody. But I doubt that they had corrected their false statement, because of Alinejad's call. For sure, they have recieved many objections about that lie they had posted, so they had no other choice than correcting it.

Ms Alinejad, on the other hand, didn't act very professionally. She has to consider that she is not in Iran, anymore. She is an Iranian Journalist in the West , where the laws and protocols are respected and followed. I can understand that in Iran, they don't follow the rules and there's no respect for the laws and orders. But now that she is outside of Iran, I wish she would show some improvement in this regard.

My two cents; 

I [very much] echo Ari's view here....

Considering what one may expect from an IRI news agency, one can applaud those tactics used by Alinejad to get them on the record where they can not confirm or deny, only to say it is none of your business.   Also, while we are discussing the journalistic professionalism, I found the Pars news far less professional in handling this predicament that they found themselves in.   Perhaps this can be viewed as one more evidence for lack of accountablity in that organization.

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad

"Rebel without borders"

Clever quip, Souri.

As to Alinejad's motive, when artfully done "gotcha" journalism can be newsworthy. For example, Katie Couric's  question to Sarah Palin--revealing Palin's lack of knowledge about world affairs-- deserved the
headlines it got because it produced a concrete example of what many had
been saying without recorded proof. In the same way, Alinejad succeeded in
giving us a concrete snapshot of IRI journalism at work. Her confrontational approach led Fars News to take
the bait and go on the record as saying, "...the source is no one's business!" Whereas Couric's gracious style may have led to, "We apologize
for the initial error, and corrected it as soon as we caught it."Or something along those lines.

Thanks MPD

For your input. I have already seen a few interviews by Ms Alinejad. She is smart, but I believe she needs to improve her general attitude which seems too agressive toward her interlocutors.

Still, I really didn't understand her motivation, this time. Hope she, or someone who understood her better, would explain s why she has acted in this way.

I like the points you bring up

Masoumeh (Masih) Alinejad is a seasoned journalist, having worked in Iran for ILNA, Hambastegi Daily and Etemad Melli Daily; and now working as a journalist again outside Iran.  She is also an accompolished author, having written at least three books.  So, it is quite obvious that she knows her profession, but this phone call to low ranking staff of a major news outlet in Iran, with a deceptive agenda, about a major story that they have already altered the content of it, without properly introducing herself and the news outlet she is affiliated with, seems very unprofessional.

I still don’t know on whose behalf she made the phone call.